This made me think about if other brands can do the same…

I took Kansas, my residence, as an example to start a discussion on LinkedIn.  After a month-long lively discussion, I concluded that branding a geography is probably harder than one may think.  First of all, no geography is homogenous.  This presents a unique challenge to branding, as it’s a discipline that is based almost entirely on consistency.  For example:  New York City – some brand it as the capital of glamour while others brand it as the capital of grime.

So, how could one brand leveraging geography?  By the product that geography produces.  Florida oranges.  Kansas beef.  Detroit automobiles.

“Imported From Detroit” is a trademark of Chrysler Group LLC.

While some of the challenges he highlighted are systematic, others have simple solutions.  The private sector has one thing over the public sector:  $$$$$ at their disposal.  So, the private sector can buy creative talents, buy space, buy media even.  However, there is one thing the public sector has in abundance:  Passion.

Here are a few simple thoughts:

Ad:  Think like a big advertiser.  Know what message you want to deliver.  Create your marketing materials accordingly.  Note message is singular, not plural.  In an ad, you have limited time to get their attention.  So, hit them with the most intrigue message, and let them seek you out to find the rest.  (Yes, include a website or some way for them to follow up with you.)

Space:  Pound the pavement.  Create an awesome flyer and distribute in the neighborhood.  Get what space you can.

Media:  Do you know how often news articles are simply reprint of carefully crafted press releases?  You can do the same.  You can write press releases, keep in mind what are the important messages.  Send it to your local newspaper and there is a chance you would get printed.  Local newspaper is struggling to find a voice in this age where people read their news online.  Localization is what’s going to save newspapers.   With that in mind, don’t forget digital media.  Digital media give everyone access to a national audience.  You own website can host a variety of information.  Just make sure the information is organized so it’s easily found.  Yes, this is the website that should go on the ad / flyer.

That’s what the pros call integrated marketing campaign.  You may not have $$.  But you have talents from volunteers that can yield results far better than money can buy.

So, on Saturday, I volunteered for Lawrence Complete Streets at the Valet Bike Booth during our Earth Day celebration.  First of all, a little introduction on what this is:  Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users.  Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street.  Complete Streets policies direct transportation planners and engineers to consistently design with all users in mind including drivers, public transportation vehicles and riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists as well as older people, children, and people with disabilities.

Now, this is a totally cool initiative.  For Lawrence, it’s particularly important because it’s a bedroom community.  What does that mean?  That mean it’s a community for of young families and retirees.  Kids and old people are probably the biggest beneficiaries of Complete Streets.  I was assigned the task of Public Educator, which was to promote Complete Streets to Earth Day spectators.  I was given the task to either solicit email addresses or to give out informational cards.

Despite this being a cool initiative, I had the hardest time with this task!  Because until I came home after my volunteering, I was not that educated about Complete Streets.  This made me very uncomfortable in soliciting email addresses.  The information cards was nicely done with various web and social media addresses for people to find out more information about Complete Streets.  (I used that card after my volunteering to learn more.)  However, I still didn’t feel confident handing them out because it felt like junk mail to me. 

So, what lessons lies here?

1)  Sell to yourselves first

2)  Think like an advertiser to sell to others. 

SELL TO YOURSELVES FIRST

What do I mean?  Ultimately, I wasn’t sold on the initiative.  To be fair, the event organizers gave us all a nice speech on the initiative.  However, it was long winded and unfocused.  That was the reason why I wasn’t confident in selling it to others.  I didn’t know what I was selling.  (I got much more excited about it afterwards when I started studying the website at home.)  Companies first sell internally, before they sell externally.  That’s why employees are given free or discount products.  You try it, you like it, you work hard at selling more of it.  It is impossible to be good at selling something that you don’t personally like.  Your indifference in the product will show through.  (Think political campaigns.  Politicians first sell to their own party before they sell externally.)  So, first start with educating and selling internally first.  Select only those whose are most passionate to sell externally. 

THINK LIKE AN ADVERTISER TO SELL TO OTHERS

Advertisers have 30 seconds (or in these days 140 characters).  Don’t think you have more.  That’s why advertisers are very disciplined in their efforts.  So, in essence, the organizer’s long winded speech was of absolutely no use.  Instead, think like a marketer and think through these two very important question: 

• What is the desired action from your audience?
• Why should they take that action?

Oh, and if all else fails, marketers know they can always rely on “the children” and the American patriotism.  (No one argue against them.)  Using some interesting facts on the national Complete Streets website, I would have empowered my ambassadors with the following 30 second speech:

“Did you know that raising medians and designing better intersections and sidewalks can reduce pedestrian risks by 28%, making the streets safer for our children?  Learn more about how you can get involve on these websites.”

“Did you know that if we have more bike paths and as a nation make just 0.5% more trips using bikes, we could save 462 million gallons of gas, lowering US dependency on foreign oil?  Learn more about how you can get involved on these websites.”

Photo credit:  Complete Streets

Social media has became a company’s best tool in disaster management.  Borders advised their loyal customers via Facebook and Twitter regarding their reorganization the same day it was filed.

Wall Street Journal reported on this pending bankruptcy last week.  So, it isn’t new news to the inside circle.  However, to many Borders consumers, the social media postings are likely to represent breaking news.  Social media is also allowing Borders to continue to communicate with their core consumers as the proceedings evolves.  It also gave Borders an avenue to communicate important information such as store closing.  During such a difficult time, it also gave Borders a way to continue to build good will and retain loyal consumers to the best of its abilities.  A quick glance on Borders twitter stream shows numerous personal replies.  Social media gave Borders the opportunity to continuously engage, and to address (or potentially discover) any consumer concerns.

Social media is now an essential tool for any public relations effort.  It’s particularly helpful in incidents where events are continuously changing, and you need a way to communicate with your most loyal consumers with the latest and greatest.  Traditional media cannot be compared with social media in its ability to respond quickly.  News is on TV three times a day.   Newspaper comes out once a day.  Tweets can be posted continuously.

Click here to view a few screenshots of Borders effort.

Here is the Timonthy Hutton version:

And one of the highest rated comments on YouTube for this commercial reads as follows:

Wow, this is fucking offensive.

“Millions of jews were murdered through starvation at Auschwitz… but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy this GREAt brisket at Katz’s Delicatessen, thanks to Groupon!”

I actually used to like Groupon. Fuck off now. Use Living Social, its better anyway.

(thumbs up this)

crock703 3 hours ago 112 thumbs up

As social media strategist Rohit Bhargava tweeted: “Groupon seems to have achieved the unique feat of paying $3M to lose customers who previously loved them.”

Many are comparing Groupon’s current situation to Kenneth Cole’s imprudent tweet invoking the Egypt uprising to promote their Spring collection.  Since the tweet, Kenneth Cole has issued an apology.  I await to see if Groupon will take similar actions, but I doubt it.

Reasons being that the Groupon commercials were actually really well-executed. Here is the concept of Groupon’s “Save The Money” campaign, according to Groupon CEO Andrew Mason:

When groups of people act together to do something, it’s usually to help a cause. With Groupon, people act together to help themselves by getting great deals. So what if we did a parody of a celebrity-narrated, PSA-style commercial that you think is about some noble cause (such as “Save the Whales”), but then it’s revealed to actually be a passionate call to action to help yourself (as in “Save the Money”)?

The TV commercials has an online presence SaveTheMoney.org.  Now, it’s unclear exactly how would you know about this website.  It’s not featured on the commercials.  It is on the Groupon homepage.  If you click on the sidebar where that invites you to check out the Super Bowl spots, it would take you to this website.

SaveTheMoney.org’s sole purpose as it exists now is to host the TV commercials, AND to give you an opportunity to donate!  Under Timothy Hutton’s Tibetan restaurant spot is a button to donate to the Tibet Fund.  Under Cuba Gooding, Jr’s whale-watching cruise spot is a button to donate to Greenpeace.  Under Elizabeth Hurley’s waxing spot is a button to donate to the Rainforest Action Network.  On top of it all, Groupon will match the donations.

So, all in all, Groupon’s commercials are doing great things! It’s creative.  It’s charitable.

So, what went wrong?

Groupon committed a crime many other brands have committed in the past. They just happened fail far more spectacularly.  They were talking to themselves, instead of the audience.

Super Bowl is a forum to reach the masses, which Groupon understood.  Andrew Mason said on the company blog:

This year, we realized that in spite of how much we’d grown, a ton of people still hadn’t heard of Groupon, so we decided to give in to our Napoleon complex and invade the rest of the world with a proper Super Bowl commercial.

However, the masses is not going to take the time to research the commercials as I did for this post.  Even though no doubt that the controversial commercials will generate extra media coverage.  It’s questionable how much of this coverage will reach the general public that Groupon is so desperately trying to reach.   The masses will take the commercials at its face value.  And, at face value, Groupon mocked some serious issues.  Why did they do that?  Again, we look at the blog post:

The trouble was figuring out what to do and with whom to work. We had tried working with creative agencies before and had never been that impressed. Our peculiar taste in humor made it really hard for outside agencies to come up with concepts we liked. This time around, we had better luck with the ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky. We really admired some of the work that CP+B had done in the past, so we gave them a shot at pitching us concepts, and they came up with an idea we couldn’t resist blowing millions of dollars on.

The key sentence being “Our peculiar taste in humor made it really hard for outside agencies to come up with concepts we liked.”

The problem is the audience for a Super Bowl commercial is not Groupon employees.  The audience is the masses.  This concept fails to resonate with the general American public.

So, learn from Groupon.  Next time you’re creating a marketing message (an ad, a flyer, a resume), ask yourself:

Is this message designed to appeal to me or to my audience?

Email subscribers:  YouTube video link

Click here to check out more post-game analysis.

Update (2/7/2011): Groupon issued an explanation on company blog.  Groupon is going to redo the commercials to have a more obvious call-to-action to support the charities.  However, as many readers noted, nowhere in the explanation was an apology, which further infuriates some users. Groupon insists that their commercials were good, better than those that objectify women (read: GoDaddy.com).  Users generally agree that better than bad doesn’t make it good and Groupon is setting the bar far too low…

Related articles

• Groupon’s Controversial Super Bowl Ad (huffingtonpost.com)
• Groupon’s Offensive Tibet Ad Is Also Unfunny [Video] (gawker.com)
• Save The Money: Groupon’s Super Bowl Ads May Spark Faux Outrage (techcrunch.com)

As as a coffee addict, I’ve been following the conversation on the new Starbucks logo, and have been doing a quick study on logo designs in general.  Many have commented on the logo, particularly on the removal of the brand name.  As with any changes, many wanted no part of it and called for the old logo to return.

Due to the timing, many have been predicting the fate of the new Starbuck logo based on recent memory of Gap’s logo disaster.  Many are already planning the going-away of this new Starbuck logo.  However, I would say that is unlikely.

There is updating the logo for relevance.  There there is changing the logo.  The Gap incident was closer to the latter.  Gap walked away from using blue as the fundamental look and feel to white.  The little blue box in the now defunct new Gap logo was a nod to the original design, but it remained to be too far of a departure.

Some argued that the level of outcry depends on the level of brand loyalty.  I have no doubt that there is great truth in this argument.  However, one can’t possibly assert that a brand with high consumer loyalty can never updating their logo.  Many brands have done so successfully.  Pepsi for example.  Per the New Coke experiment, we all know how loyal cola drinkers are.  Nevertheless, Pepsi was able roll out their logo successfully, despite the always present dissenting opinion of a few.  Pepsi’s logo an update of the old, and not a drastic departure in design.

Considering that the siren remained to be the hero of the new Starbucks logo, and despite going one-tone, Starbucks chose to stay with the iconic green that’s be in market since 1987. I think this logo will thrive.  However, this logo update, along with those done in the past, does teach us a few more lessons on logo and branding.  Stay tuned.

Photo Credit: Starbucks logos via Starbucks.com. Gap logos via cnn.com.  Pepsi logos via bevreview.com  ®/™ Trademarks owned by Starbucks Corporation, Gap, Inc, and Pepsi, Inc respectively.

Related articles

• Starbucks changes corporate logo (marketwatch.com)
• Farewell to an old friend: The Starbucks cup of coffee. (thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com)
• New Starbucks Logo (lifeasacynic.blogspot.com)
• New Starbucks logo: Bring on the haters (money.cnn.com)

Marketers like to talk about social media as a marketing platform. How can we get the message out? How can we control the message? How can we leverage this? Well, here’s the thing. The thing about social media is that it is in fact a media venue. (I heard about the health care reform on social media channels before I caught it on traditional news channels.)

Recently, I learned an equation from Michael Levine’s book, A Branded World: Adventures in Public Relations and the Creation of Superbrands. Branding = marketing + advertising + public relations.

Branding is the all encompassing effort of building a brand. It starts with marketing. Marketing defines the strategy. Marketing defines the 4Ps. Marketing defines the positioning.

Marketing’s plan gets translated into words and visuals through advertising.

Public relations builds on the advertising campaign and turns marketing’s plan into actions. Such actions include gathering media attention.

In that case, social media really falls into the realm of public relations. You build a relationship with bloggers the same way you build a relationship with traditional journalists. You “control” the message the same way – truthfully, honestly, and organically. It’s the same idea as controlling the press. Today, in addition to asking the question “What would the press say?”, we need to also ask “What would the world say?”

The world may be changing, but the basics still hold.

Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Up In The Air, staring George Clooney, opens nationwide on Christmas. I previewed the movie and enjoyed it. My friends gave it just okay reviews. See for yourself, and give your own ratings.

But, why am I writing about a movie on this blog? Because I thought it was great movie for product placement. Unlike James Bond movies where each product flashes in front of you for mere seconds, the products in this movie were an integral part of the movie. They really sold it. I think it was one of the best movies for product placement since the Italian Job.

What products were featured? American Airline, Hilton, Travelpro, and Hertz. Just to name a few.

Travelpro is a line of luggage. This movie showed again and again how great these luggage moves. They spin. They roll. They go everywhere with ease. All the cool jetsetters use them. Way better than the old clunky suitcases you may have at home (in fact, there is a scene dedicated to this point).

Hertz, it gets you in and out fast. If you’re a Hertz loyal customer, you can get in and out in seconds. No long lines. In fact, they will “move mountains” to get you the car you want.

Hilton hotels have plush soft beds, and comfy little robes and slippers. Hilton hotels offer all the comfort of home and then some, well, at least to a guy that travels for a living. Of course, don’t forget about the Hiltons HHonors program! It’s a great promotion (George Clooney said it, not me). Plus, you get to skip the lines and get the preferred VIP treatment! Loyalty pays.

Talking about Loyalty, let’s talk about the featured star: American Airline. American Airline can take you everywhere! It satisfies even the needs of someone who travels over 340 days and 300,000 miles a year! And once again, loyalty pays. If you’re a loyal customer, you get to use exclusive lounges, be greeted by a custom greeting, and even, if you’re really really really loyal, get your own dedicated customer service phone line. Ahh, I want to join AAdvantage now!

Ahh, product placement… when done well it’s integrated into the story line, while leaving you with a good impression of the brand.

Photo credit: American Airlines, originally uploaded by anneh632.

Related articles online

• Up in the Air: George Clooney becomes a frequent flyer (gadling.com)
• EXCLUSIVE: The Product Guy “Up in the Air” (tpgblog.com)

This week I learned that the more money you have, the less time you have to spend on any particular tasks. You could hire someone to do it for you.

However, if you don’t have the money, you’d have to spend more time.

This is the equation that any marketer must understand. You don’t need to have a lot of money to have a successful campaign. However, the smaller your budget, the harder each dollar must work, the more creative you’d have to be, the more work you’d have to do yourself. The larger the budget, the more crazy stuffs you could try, the more you could have someone else do the work for you.

However, a small budget shouldn’t limit the success of your marketing campaign.

What’s sad is that this formula, that’s so obvious with small businesses, is sometimes forgotten by big companies.

This is the new economy. This is the new reality. This is a new year. This is the new budget. Everyone of us needs to learn to do more with less.

Photo Credit: funny money, originally uploaded by Material Boy.

Related articles online

• Marketing outside the box (thestar.com)

Today I took the Starbucks Via challenge… and I was disappointed.

First of all, I could tell the difference. I didn’t know which was which, but I could tell the difference… and I did not like Via. The regular brew had a cleaner taste. So, the challenge did not sway me to buy Via.

However, I learned something about Via… it could be instantly dissolved in cold water, or cold milk! Imagine the possibility in the summer! But, wait… it’s only 50 degrees out… I don’t need a cold coffee… So, that’s an irrelevant message to me. However, I believe that Starbucks would launch a cold Via campaign in the summer. But of course, the problem would be how to differentiate this against the Starbucks’ bottled Frappacino.

Toward the end of the demonstration, I learned something even more exciting about Via. I learned that Starbucks designed the most nifty travel mug for Via. It is a regular travel mug, with a twist off cap that allows easy storage of the Via packages. Now, why isn’t this the focus of the campaign?

I understand that Starbucks is about taste, but Via is about the on-the-go lifestyle Americans have. In addition, a quick survey online would reveal that many could taste the difference between Via and the fresh brew. I am not alone in this. So, by solely focusing on taste, Via’s campaign is missing the opportunity to truly address what the product brings to the consumers’ life. Via’s branding should not be built on taste, something people already expect from a Starbucks product. Of course, people would wonder if Via could deliver on taste, but it isn’t a problem, unless Via really couldn’t deliver… People would not buy Via because of taste. They buy Via because it’s convenient! They buy Via because they wouldn’t have to make a coffee stop. They buy Via because they wouldn’t have to wait in line for a coffee. They buy Via because they could save two minutes in the morning!

Now, let me also give you the context of how this demonstration went. The barista was very diligent in focusing on the taste message. However, being a coffee addict and a marketer, I was particularly interested about this product launch. So, I stuck around and chatted with the Barista a little. It was after I was given the coupon, and the other couple that was also at that particular demonstration had left, that I learned about the cold brewing and the travel mug. Now, imagine how many people never knew about those two really cool facts about Via. How much potential sale lost…

Photo credit: Starbucks Via travel mug, originally uploaded by mhaithaca.

Related articles online

• Starbucks Goes Instant (online.wsj.com)
• Starbucks Debuts Its Via Instant Coffee Product (shoppingblog.com)
• Starbucks’ VIA Instant Coffee: A Potential Hit? (businesspundit.com)
• Starbucks’s new Via instant coffee: Don’t believe the hype (dailyfinance.com)